The Book of the Balance of Wisdom 
1876J 
revelation, how startling and interesting would be the won- 
derful disclosure ! Imagination fails to conceive of the 
possible social and scientific status of the present era, had 
the named and the unnamed “lost arts ” been preserved 
through all time, and had the experience of the human race 
been uninterruptedly handed down to the existing gene- 
ration. 
The legitimate feeling of exultation and satisfaction 
enjoyed by oriental scholars when years of painstaking 
research amid the musty records of the past are at length 
rewarded by a literary and historical discovery of importance, 
seems to us comparable to the pleasurable excitement expe- 
rienced by the scientists whose investigations of nature are 
crowned by the determination of a new species or the 
establishment of a new law. In this respedt, the Egypto- 
logist and the Naturalist, the student of ancient history and 
the student of modern chemistry, have a common purpose, 
each in his own sphere seeking the truth. 
Original investigations in the field of history are, however, 
vouchsafed only to those profound linguists whose erudition 
and skill in deciphering semi-obliterated cryptographs have 
been the fruit of a lifetime’s laborious study; and these, 
absorbed in their study of the ancient, too often neglebt to 
compare the wisdom of early times with the progress of 
modern scientific truths, and fail to appreciate the points 
most valuable to the student of science. Hence the history 
of science yet remains to be written. 
This suggestion may be met with references to the works 
of the savants who, especially in the preceding century, 
devoted much to the elaboration of historical treatises in 
their several departments of science ; but these are few in 
number, and, as we believe, merely sketch the outlines, the 
details of which will yet be supplied by some mighty genius 
at once a linguist, an archaeologist, and a scientist. 
Meanwhile, in default of the erudition which alone allows 
of critical examination of monumental inscriptions, papyri, 
and original manuscripts, the humble searcher after know- 
ledge must be content to study available translations, notes, 
and criticisms provided by oriental scholars, and to bring 
into prominence such materials as his imperfebt powers can 
command. 
Bearing in mind the great obligations which the exabt 
sciences owe to the Arabian philosophers of the Middle Ages, 
it is not surprising that such of their works as are made 
available by the translations of linguists afford abundant 
and rich sources of information to the student of the History 
